Legend
by Pen of Silver
Summary: Ash Ketchum has been out of the public eye for years, dethroned by a challenger. However, a new tournament called Legend's Plateau is coming up. Revenge is a powerful motivator they say... but then again so is love. AU Rayshipping.
1. Chapter 1

Legend

The sea pounded against the shore without abandon. Against the tantalizing backdrop of beauty that the sea beheld, a figure dressed in gray and black watched the spectacle. Eyes fixed upon the waves that tore at the shore. Waves that had given the place the name Queen's Mirror. To anyone observing, it would appear that the man was admiring the view, but in reality, his mind was in a different place all together.

_It's been so long… _he thought as he gazed away at the other shore of the lake. How long had he been living at the corner of the shore? It felt all too long. His shaggy unkempt hair fell around his neck, he was pretty sure that he looked like some sort of cave man now, not that there were any mirrors around to check.

The sound of the crunch of feet on sand brought him back to the present. "The nearest road, is thirty miles to the east." Ash said calmly, hearing the sounds of a tourists foot prints behind him. The footsteps stopped. "I don't need directions." The man replied, standing directly behind Ash. Ash frowned, his aura extending to lightly probe the other mans. No such luck, his mind was slammed shut by steel doors.

"I'm looking for you."

That caught his attention. He turned slowly around to meet he gaze of a brown haired man, with eyes narrowed into a perpetual squint. "Brock." He greeted calmly.

"Ash." Brock replied. "Reminiscing?" he inquired, lacing his fingers behind his head as he stepped forward.

"A bit." The man replied, his fingers straying toward the hat that lay across his knees. " So then, what does the head of the international breeding society want with me?" He asked simply as he stared out over the water's edge again. A sail boat was docked at the beat up old ship dock that lay against the shore. That answered how his companion had gotten here.

" You've heard about the tournament that's coming up, right?" The brown haired man asked, knowing the answer already.

" Well there's a thousand tournaments coming up, which one are you talking about?"

" Come on, even you should of heard of this one."

" It's been 3 years since I participated in any kind of tournament, Brock." The black haired man commented as his mind brought up images of his defeat. Of his fall from grace so to speak, but how had he known that some blond haired pipsqueak from sinnoh would be that good?

" You haven't heard about it from anyone?"

Ash looked out around the deserted beach, "This place is definitely packed with people Brock." He commented sarcastically.

Brock sighed and rubbed the back of his spiky hair tiredly "Drop the charade will ya? I've known you too long to be fooled by that act."

Ash sighed and withdrew a tattered poster from the backpack at his feet, "This?" He asked amused, unfolding it.

" Legends Plateau." Brock said amused, "Coordinated by Scott of the battle frontier, and the Kanto champ Lance. So, are you going?" He asked, his perpetual squint suddenly narrowing slightly. His languid, slouched stance straightening. You could tell he was serious now.

" Again, it's been three years…"

"Since you've participated in any type of tournament, I get it." Brock completed for his friend. " Still, what better way to get back into the public eye, than winning the tournament that only comes around once a decade?"

"Who said I want to get back into the public eye?" Ash retorted, it was a hollow statement, and they both knew it.

Brock sighed and turned his back on his friend. "The way I see it, you can sit here and mope around for the rest of your sorry life for losing to a blond girl, or you can get yourself back out there and make yourself known again." He delivered his ultimanium with just a hint of sharpness.

Silence, the crashing of the waves was Brock's only reply.

"I'm not feeling sorry for myself. Only proving to myself a point." Ash said simply, looking across at the ocean.

"Prove what?" Brock asked curiously.

_To lose, you need to know how to win. If you've never won, what have you to lose? _The words echoes through his mind. The previous champion of Sinnoh had told him that. He had won against the greatest trainer in Sinnoh at the time, the words had been meant to tell him that now that he had won, he was destined to fall. He had won everything. And he would lose everything.

Though he was sure the previous champion didn't expect him to fall so quickly. "Prove that out of all the people in the world, that even after all I've done, all I've accomplished, that I will never be the best." Ash said simply.

It had been his dream for as long as he remembered to be the best of the best. But then again, that's why they were called dreams right?

Brock sighed as he looked at his old friend. "Since I visited you at Christmas, you still haven't changed huh?"

Ash looked out across the beautiful lake. It had been one of the few constants in his life these past years. "Did you expect me to?"

Brock conceded the point. "When you decide to, call me." He said, walking back to his boat. Hoping... No... Not hoping. Merely acknowledging the possibility that his friend would just maybe become the man he once was.

Ash looked at the back of the retreating man. His eye drifted close as a torrent of shame welled up inside of him.

_Your a failure. You think you can just give up and sit here feeling sorry for yourself? Pathetic. The purple haired man sighed and walked away from him. __  
_

_Seems like I am a failure, don't you agree Paul? _Ash thought, standing up and dusting of the sand from his jeans. He slung the back pack over his shoulder and a small yellow mouse climbed onto his shoulder. "We finally getting some work done?"Pikachu asked, from his position.

Ash didn't answer, putting on his hat and beginning to walk. The grin on his face was answer enough.

_Cynthia, it's time to prove which one of us really is the best. _

* * *

Cynthia frowned, her blond hair cascading out like a veritable water fall. A small envelope sat on her desk with the official pokemon league seal stamped on it. The blond champion sliced open the letter with a letter opener and unfolded the letter inside.

" Legend plateau hmm?" She asked to no one in particular. The biggest tournament in a decade?Yeah right, the officials were always exaggerating everything, anything to get hype for their tournament. Still... there were some high ranking names organizing this, Lance a champion from Kanto, and Scott, the manager of the Battle Frontier. Sounded like fun. Maybe she'd even get a decent challenge this time around, other than those small fries she'd been fending of to defend her position as champion of sinnoh.

Her lips curled slightly. She pushed the button to call up her personal maid, and about 5 seconds later a brunette in a maids outfit came up and gave a bow.

" Yes Champion Cynthia?" The maid asked politely.

" Fetch me a plane to Kings Impasse. I need to get in some training."

The maid gave a graceful bow and left.

Cynthia waited before the clicking of the maid's high heels faded away into the distance before letting a grin bloom on her face. Scott huh? That man certainly knew how to throw a party... And Lance was on par with her in power, and he was Kanto's longest reigning champion, having held the position for five years. Yes... this tournament would be fun indeed.

The familiar thrill of ecstasy and adrenaline pulsed through her veins at the prospect of a challenge. She hadn't felt this alive since she had defeated the last champion, Ash Ketchum, in a League Battle. That had been three years ago.

Edited 8/30/12

* * *

**So what do you think? Good? Bad? Terrible? You tell me. But I warn you, I eat Flamers for breakfast. Constructive Criticism is appreciated though! Reviews are worth gold to an authors heart, remember that. **

**- Pen of Silver.**


	2. Reminicense

**AN: Thanks guys for all the wonderful reviews and all those who have put this stories on their favorite/alert list. I'm pretty happy at the response I got, though the biggest complaint was that I didn't make the chapter long enough, which is hopefully remedied here. As for the story itself, I need some advice on what pokemon ash should get, after all I love Gardvoir and pikachu's pretty much a given, but for the rest... give me some ideas people! No legendary pokemon though, because, really that's just unrealistic. **

**-Pen of Silver**

**Underlined: Aura speech and Pokespeech  
**

**Reminisce**

Flicker. A tree next to Ash's Buizel burst into splinters and chunks of wood as the psychic attack missed by a hair. "Buizel, Sonic Boom." Ash ordered.

The water weasel's tail glowed a bright white before flashing and releasing a lethal shock wave at the petite pink and green Pokemon that was in his way. Flicker. Again the Ralts disappeared and reappeared behind Buizel, sending another confusion attack that Buizel nimbly dodged. This had been going on for sometime now, they had been dancing circles with this Ralts for over a minute. Sonic Boom, Teleport, Confusion, Dodge. Rinse and repeat.

"Buizel, Water pulse" Ash ordered, keeping his eyes on the small psychic type Pokemon. A cyan ball of water launched at Ralts, heavy as a lead ball and with enough velocity to crush a Geodude into powder. The training he had put his Buizel through on his journey in Sinnoh had paid of after all, Ash mused, watching the psychic type teleport again, except this time into the branches of a tree. The child like psychic type stared down at Ash with a small hint of amusement. _I can do this all day boy _It seemed to be saying with its eyes, the taunting glimmer in the wine red eyes seemed oddly out of place in it's childish 3 foot body.

"Ohh... it is on." Ash muttered, returning Buizel back to it's Pokeball. "Pikachu..." He said. _Yeah... Yeah... _Pikachu acknowledged with a eye roll and a flick of it's lightning bolt shaped tail. "You must of really pissed him of for him to send out me." Pikachu remarked as he stared at the tiny psychic type, jumping of his usual perch at Ash's shoulder.

"Your the best he's got? Not very impressive."  Ralts quipped, raising a invisible eye brow at the electric mouse, before hurling a barrage of ethereal green leaves at the electric mouse. Magical leaf. Pikachu noted curiously, a oddly powerful attack for a Ralts to have. "That's some serious fire power your packing there sister." Pikachu acknowledged, sidestepping the onslaught of razor edged leafs.

"Of course."  Ralts acknowledged, tossing anther confusion attack at Pikachu. Pikachu sidestepped this one as well, and after brushing of some metaphorical dust on his shoulder he looked back a the psychic. "This is gonna hurt like a bitch alright?"  Pikachu commented. His knees were slightly bent, all the better to facilitate a lightning quick movement if he needed to. Though he doubted he'd need to. One shot would be enough.

Ralts shrugged "Try me." She said amused.

"Pikachu..." Ash grumbled, getting impatient with his starter Pokemon at the lack of action.

"Yeah... Yeah..." Pikachu grumbled. _1,000 volts, 50 degree angle, no spin,_ He thought, his cheeks turning a dangerous red before without warning a thunder bolt arched out of his cheeks and illuminated the clearing with a other worldly yellow hue. Zap. Ralts crumpled like a tin can.

Ash nodded and tossed a Pokeball at the Ralts with a sigh, this little psychic type had been more trouble than it was worth. The limp green and purple pokemon was sucked into the ball without a wiggle of protest. Ash heaved another sigh and took out a potion from his back pack. He quickly sprayed it over the Ralts and tossed the leftover container to Pikachu,who zapped it to dust with no trouble.

"Wake up." Ash grumbled, prodding the Pokemon with his finger. Not receiving a response, he extended his very aura, a trick he had picked up from a man from iron island, and auricly poked the psychic type in the cheek. "Alright, Alright, I'm up." The Ralts snapped, struggling to it's feet.

"Good to hear." Ash said with his aura, turning around and slinging back on his backpack."Pikachu, fill her in will ya?"  Ash asked as he started of walking.

Pikachu nodded "WIll do," He said, jerking his head for the Ralts to follow before springing nimbly onto his trainers shoulder.

Ralts sighed and teleported herself onto his other shoulder. She supposed that the man before her was to be her trainer now? The psychic type resigned herself to it and asked Pikachu, in the voice of a Pokemon who's freedom had just been stolen, "So... fill me in."  Ralts grumbled.

Pikachu smiled at the Psychic type "Well then pretty little lady, plan for a grueling training regimen for the first few months you spend with Ash, the rest should be either battling or hanging out with the rest of the gang." 

Ralts shrugged ruefully "Perfect. So who's the rest of the gang?"  Ralts asked halfheartedly.

"Well, Ash still has to catch three more pokemon before he considers his team complete. His team is the gang, and at the moment, I guess your the second in seniority. Of course I'm the oldest."  Pikachu said smugly.

Ralts sighed, adjusting her position on her trainer's shoulder "Sounds fun." She said dryly.

Pikachu smiled fondly "Ohh... it is." He said dreamily "Exploring new places, sleeping with the same people yet waking up in a different place every day, It makes me wonder how I could have spent half of my life stuck in a Pokeball in Professor Oaks lab."

Ralts smiled about to respond, before she felt herself hoisted off of her perch on her trainer's shoulder and into his arms. "Your smaller than I expected," Ash commented, settling her into the crook of his arm. Pikachu peered over at her owlishly from his elevated position, but said nothing.

"Thanks." Ralts grunted, unused to the feeling of cloth against her cheeks.

"Welcome." Ash responded, "Now I need to set some ground rules okay?"

"Sure." Ralts responded.

Ash nodded, taking a left at the fork in the road. "First of, we're a family. Pikachu didn't mention that, but we are all a family. Once we get the rest of the team together, you guys are going to be one big family. So that means, no fighting with other Pokemon unless I say so, help your team mates and don't hurt any one unless you have a very good reason to. Alright?"

Ralts nodded, processing the information with a blink and a nod. " Good" Ash said warmly, lightly giving the petite psychic a hug. "Welcome to the family." He said, placing her back on his shoulder.

Ralts shook of the embrace with a embarrassed shrug and a blush. He was her trainer now huh? Suddenly, the prospect didn't seem too bad.

* * *

They went through the same routine with the three other Pokemon that Ash caught, a Roselia, a Gible and a Snorunt. Oddly enough, Gible was the only male, while the rest were female. All the Pokemon received the same speech. Were all part of the family, yada yada yada.

The first night that they all spent together as a complete "family" as Ash liked to call it was a awkward one. Pikachu had a unanimous claim over Ash's left shoulder, while the rest of them scrambled for other positions. Ralt's customary one was on Ash's lap. It was comfortable and it often benefited her by receiving the most hugs out of all the Pokemon. Snorunt, had claimed a position more away from the group, befitting her naturally aloof nature. Roselia leaned up against Ash's thigh, and Gible was Ash's door mat, often at their trainers feet and was naively childish.

Pikachu smirked at the rest of the group from his lofty position at Ash's shoulder " Well, don't we look like a happy family?" He teased.

Snorunt heaved a frosty sigh, freezing the nearby leaves and twigs with her frosty breath. "Yes, yes Pikachu, we definitely do, look like on happy family." she said, sarcasm heavy on her breath.

Gible shrugged "Well, I'm happy." He said, from his position at Ash's feet. Roselia shyly raised one rose bouquet with her left hand "Umm... I'm happy, " She murmured in agreement.

Ralts leaned back against Ash's chest. "I'm happy." She stated simply. In the few weeks she had traveled with Ash, she had quickly lost her spunky air in as promised, Ash's training regime. It was nothing hard, just it required effort. A lot of it. Lifting 30 pound stones with her mind was her current exercise.

Ash smiled and leaned back, watching his Pokemon bicker kindheartedly , it reminded him of the old days, when he had Brock, Dawn, and occasionally Paul sitting around a camp fire. Arguing yes, but also having fun. Ash smiled and slowly closed his eyes, letting sleep sweep him away, his last impression was of Pikachu, his tail tapping a gentle beat on the back of his head.

* * *

_"Big day tommorow huh?"  
_

_"You bet... the biggest of my life."  
_

_"Well you might as well get some sleep then sleepy head."  
_

_"Yeah... Yeah... don't need to treat me like I'm a seven year old... I'm just as old as you."  
_

_"Well I can't help it sometimes, sleep well Cynthia."  
_

If only she had known that the man who had spoken those words to her, would be her opponent the following day. She had been a different person then, more... alive.

Blinking open beautiful silver eyes, she regarded the walls of her villa tiredly. Garchomp was dozing in the corner, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw her Spiritomb regard her with solemn eyes. "Morning everybody." She greeted, sliding out of bed. Garchomp thumped his tail in a grief greeting before curling back up to sleep. Cynthia yawned and staggered her way over to the bathroom.

After dunking her head in the washbasin, the blond champion picked up the newspaper that sat out on the coffee table and began to read. Legend's Plateau, read the title. Cynthia sighed and tossed the paper to the side, she knew she could get better information out of the official letters the Pokemon League sent her way. Of course, with all the hype that a _actual _champion was competing she was getting media attention and even offers to star in commercials everyday.

Cynthia sighed and leaned back against a old arm chair. It was the most comfortable one in the house, and it had been here longer than she had remembered. "When will I be able to just... rest?" she groaned, wondering how the previous champions had dealt with the publicity, of course, she knew how Ash had. By smiling and sucking it all up like a sponge.

A familiar flare of mixed anger and shame filled up inside of her, shame at the fact that she had beat the one person who had treated her like a friend, anger at the same person who had not told her that she would be battling him the next day. The previous champion still grated on her nerves. _You even follow me here, Ketchum. _She thought, standing up and preparing to go on her morning jog. Back against the wall, a wall of fame of all the previous champions glinted in the morning light. The picture of a young man with black hair glinted, almost mockingly.

* * *

Pikachu shook his head disapprovingly "Move faster!" He barked out at Ralts, as she dodged the multiple razor leafs that Roselia threw at her.

Ralts grunted as a leaf caught her on the shin and she quickly compensated in the loss of balance with a quick burst of psychic energy. It wasn't her fault that she had a naturally given dress wrapped around her heels, it also wasn't her fault that she was the slowest out of all of Ash's team, even slower than Snorunt, which was saying something. Hence the reason for her exercise.

"Faster." Pikachu continued, as one of the Razor leafs got to close for comfort. _I'm trying! _Ralts wanted to scream, but stopping to talk would undoubtedly get her assaulted by the razor keen leaves.

Snorunt would have made a snide comment at the moment, had she not been busy trying to freeze a whole stream. Her training was to increase the amount of time that she could hold her ice beam, at the moment she could only hold it for about 5 seconds without needing a break.

Gible, similarly was trying to master dragon breath, a powerful move for his level,but also one of the hardest to learn.

Pikachu rolled his eyes as he watched the sweat and tired perspiration drip down from all his fellow Pokemon's faces. "Ok, Break time." He announced.

Ralts sighed in relief and collapsed against a tree that Roselia had carved to bits with her razor leaf. Earlier, she would have complained about the amount of splinters digging into her back, now she didn't care.

The rest of the gang was in similar states of exhaustion, Snorunt was laying in the grass, and Roselia was to tired to even prune it's own roses.

Pikachu's ears swiveled slightly as he heard a faraway sound "Hey, Ash." He called out to his trainer, bounding up to the figure in greeting.

Ash nodded as he looked down at the three deeply panting Pokemon. "Training them hard I see." He commented.

Pikachu nodded "You bet." He said with a grin, hopping up on his trainers shoulder. Right on cue, Ralts materialized onto his left shoulder. Ash reached up and carefully patted her head. "Work hard?" He asked curiously.

_Of course _Ralts said tiredly with her mind, tapping into her trainers aura.

Ash smiled at the rest of the team and reach around in his back pack and took out two glimmering stones. One looked like it had been fused from rays of dawnlight, while the other sparkled with a iridescent sheen. "I have some good news." He said simply, directing his words to Snorunt and Roselia.

"When your strong enough, I'll give these stones to you, and you'll be able to evolve." Ash announced, slipping the stones back into his pocket.

"And when will that be?" Snorunt asked, knowing her trainer's definition of strength wasn't exactly set in stone.

"When ever I say it is." Ash grinned.

Snorunt shrugged, she hadn't really expected anything less and with the burn of resentment and anger clouding her veins, the surrounding area froze into a perfect semi-circle.

Ash looked at the ice type fondly before checking up on GIble's progress with Dragon Breath. "Not to shabby," He encouraged as he looked at the violet colored jet of flame that blossomed from the dragon types enormous jaws. Gible grunted before snapping of the flames with a flick of his jaw.

"Good job everyone." Ash congratulated, his brown eyes twinkling lightly as he observed his team. "Now, get some sleep! Were going to Veilstone tomorrow and then it'll be more training!" He announced.

Everyone gave a collective groan before obeying. Roselia dragged herself over to her pokeball and pushed the button with the tip of her bouquet of roses. She was sucked in with out protest, the rest followed suit, save Ralts who was contentedly curled up on her trainers shoulder.

Ash gently lifted the psychic type of his shoulder and placed her onto his sleeping bag. She hard worked hard today, he thought approvingly watching her chest rise and fall.

Pikachu bounced up with a amused look in his eyes "So, trainer of mine. Where to tomorrow?" He hadn't been fooled by the flimsy excuse of visiting Veilstone.

Ash lifted of his red and black had and placed it gingerly on his backpack. "Home."  He said simply.

Pikachu nodded, needing no other words as he rolled himself into a ball next to Ralts. "Good Night." He said briefly before closing his eyes for sleep.

_Home... _Ash thought, looking down at his two Pokemon. They looked so innocent at the moment. Ash smiled, a full curling of his lips, before slipping into his sleeping bag.

_"_Good night." He whispered, allowing exhaustion to sweep over him, and wash him into the blissful realm of sleep.

Revised 8/28/12


	3. Meetings

**AN: Next chapter of Legend is up, and I hope you guys enjoy it, it took me forever just to get the idea of this chapter out, and even longer to actually write it. Still I'd say I'm pretty satisfied, the character interactions are pretty good and I'd say I got their character personalities down. I'll be gone on vacation until the month of July, so see ya guys later.**

**Meetings**

"To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it."  
― Confucius

"Rise and shine, Sleepy Heads." Ash said gently, nudging his two Pokemon with his finger.

"Uggh..." Pikachu grumbled, stumbling out of his sleeping position and dunked himself into the nearby stream to wake himself up. Ralts sighed and groomed out her tangled dress and teleported herself onto Ash's shoulder.

Ash patted Ralts on the head before lowering is arm to allow Pikachu to race up the side of it. "Let's get moving." He announced, starting of on the long trek to the nearest bus station. The destination he had in mind wasn't somewhere you wanted to walk to.

* * *

Cynthia yawned tiredly as she lounged on her Garchomp's back. The view from the air was beautiful, and it made it up for her initial gut wrenching sense of fear that she had when ever she associated anything with heights.

The view was incredible. It was a scene that could have easily made it's way into any movie shoot, the towering valley and it's gorgeous water falls would have made a Vigoroth sit still and stare. The water falls looked like liquid crystal, and the sheer sides of the valley held a raw wild beauty. The air was brisk, with just a hint of frost. Cynthia breathed deeply, mountain air, all to often she forgot how much better fresh air was than the chemical laden junk that she breathed in the cities.

With a nudge of her heel, her Garchomp made a full 360 degrees turn and headed for the top of the valley. Right in the center of the valley sat a picturesque mansion fit for a king. Or in this case, a champion. The traditional settlement of the reigning champion, and a place of refuge for any previous champions. The mansion, might have been more fit to have been called a castle. Indeed, several spires and towers bloomed out of the back of the mansion. Their cobble stone construction still sturdy after hundreds of years of wear and tear by the elements.

It was perfectly cupped inside the cradle of the valley, and it was the only settlement around for miles.

Cynthia was shoken out of her stupor as she noticed they were about to reach the top of the valley. She hopped of the back of her Garchomp and recalled it into it's pokeball. After giving a quick look over at the valley, she headed of to the nearest super market. Nearest being 5 miles away, it was the price you paid for isolation.

* * *

"That'll be 50, sir." The attendant said warmly, handing the ticket to the hooded man.

"Thanks." The man said, accepting the ticket and handing over a 50 dollar bill to the girl. With a polite bow, he walked down into the train station, pocketing the ticket and raising the hood of his cowl for a moment for a breath of fresh air. Ash frowned as he slowly observed the train station, according to his ticket his train was meant to depart in about 30 minutes. He sighed and moved toward a series of stores that sold supplies to travelers. Might as well find a way to kill some time.

At the first store he grabbed a couple bottles of water and after a moment of thought, a packet of ketchup. Pikachu squirmed out of his position beneath Ash's hood as he smelled his favorite food. Ash smiled and made to hand the casher some money, before the man stopped and stared at his head. Ash twitched uncomfortably, he was sure the hood on his head would disguise him from anyone who may have recognized him.

"Sorry for staring" The man said apologetically as Ash's questioning gaze fell on him. He took note of the man's spiky black hair and a small yellow mouse Pokemon sitting on his shoulder. "You know, if you were a bit older and taller, you'd look just like the previous champion."

"Is that a good thing?" Ash asked politely, handing over the money for his groceries, grateful that the media had grossly exaggerated his height and age.

"Well, he was the pride of our nation, Ash was. Youngest champion in the world." The cashier said as he flipped open his drawer and deposited the money inside. "Until he lost to Champion Cynthia. He was only Champion for 6 months before he was taken down, that little slime. Didn't he have any pride in himself? Well... I'm rambling." He said as he noticed his customer's polite discomfort. "Just a warning, young 'un, people here in Sinnoh don't like to be reminded of bad trainers, and you look just like him..." He said, handing back a couple coins in change.

"Thank you for the advice sir," Ash said politely, the grip on his shopping bags tightening unconsciously. He knew how the public worked, they idealized those people that succeeded. The ones that fell or failed might as well of been dirt on the street for all they cared. He carefully stepped out of the store and after regarding the face of a clock, made his way to the train stop.

The slim elegant design of the train made it look like a jet plane, the aerodynamic hull and nose were perfectly stream lined and it combined the best of both elegance and efficiency. Judging by the sheen of the chrome polish, he'd say that this one had been in service for only about a year. Ralts appeared on his shoulder. _You are upset._ It was more of a statement than a question.

_I won't deny it._ Ash replied, stepping onto the train. The hiss of air conditioning and the buzz on conversation filled the air. He frowned as he looked at the ticket, seat D12. He slipped past two rows of seats before finding his at the very edge of the aisle. He gingerly lowered himself into the seat. It was rather plushy and cozy, and he noticed the U shaped head rests that would cradle the passengers neck when the train reached it's top speed.

Ash slowly dropped his back pack next to the seat and sat down. Nothing to do but wait... He thought, taking out a battered old pokedex. He quickly flicked over to the entry on Ralts and began to read._ Ralts, the Feeling Pokemon, it uses it's horns to sense emotions, it is said to appear only in front of cheerful trainers._

"Cheerful huh?" He muttered, looking at the small psychic type in his lap.

Ralts blinked at him innocently. _Problem?_

"No." He replied, looking down at the moves that Ralts knew. _Magical Leaf, Pikachu mentioned that it was rare for a wild Ralts to learn magical leaf... and I see psycho cut... Maybe one of her parents was a Gallade? _Ash mused. It was unusual for a Ralts to have Psycho Cut, they usually weren't the most physical of attackers and even more unusual was that she didn't discard it in replacement of learning stronger moves.

Hmm... He mused... looking down at the Pokedex. His seat suddenly jolted forward as the train began to move, he quickly returned Ralts to her pokeball and hugged Pikachu close to his body. He grunted and turned his head briefly to the side. For the first time he saw his two neighbors. One was a rather stubby brown haired man with a pot belly. The other... Had striking purple hair and a scowl on his face as he glared at the seat in front of him like it had personally offended him_. I'd know that face anywhere..._ Ash thought, focusing his eyes on the seats in front of him. Then the train began to slow down, using the momentum of the initial start to propel itself into a seamless glide.

He let out a barely audible sigh of relief and loosened his grip around Pikachu. It chaaed briefly in thanks and closed it eyes. _Shit. _Ash thought, wishing he had instructed Pikachu to remain silent. It was too late though. The stubby man paid no attention, dozing peacefully in his seat. The purple haired man however took one brief glance at the Pikachu in his lap, then at his face, covered by the hood. His mind connected the dots. Paul's eyes widened quickly, before just as quickly narrowing back down.

Paul thankfully remained silent. He wasn't sure how the other people in the train would react if they knew that the disgraced Sinnoh Champion was here. Paul merely raised his eyebrow and looked back down at the magazine in his hands.

Ash breathed loosely "I owe you one." He mouthed at Paul.

Paul rolled his eyes and glared with his striking purple eyes. The expression said a thousand words.

Ash nodded and felt Ralts teleport out of her pokeball. The small psychic type settled herself in his lap while a slight prickling sensation on his other shoulder told him that Roselia was also out. "You guys all can't come out in here!" He whispered, looking around to see if anyone had noticed. Thankfully most of them were still engrossed in the complimentary magazine that the train provided. That would soon change if Gible came out and started taking bites out of the steel floor.

Ralts shrugged, while Roselia shyly murmured a "I'm sorry." 

Pikachu was still in his lap, dozing away like a common Glameow. He sighed and gently ran his finger over Pikachu's ears.  
Paul kept on reading his magazine. They spent the rest of the train ride like that in comfortable silence.

* * *

"You have some explaining to do Ketchum." Paul growled, ignoring the panini that he had ordered, instead choosing to sip moodily at his drink, a dark chocolate cappuccino. They were at a cafe at the moment, and since it was Veilstone city, nobody thought twice about a man wearing a hood inside.

Ash nodded, also sipping from his drink. French Vanilla, if anyone cared to know. " I know I do." He muttered, handing his sandwich over to Pikachu, who gave a squeal of joy and began to devour it. "So what do you want to know?"

"Are you participating in Legend's Plateau?" That was Paul, straight to the point as always. A waitress slid a plate in front of him with a steaming sandwich. Paul didn't bother glancing at her, choosing to grunt instead.

"Yes." Ash said, as he watched the waitress leave.

"Why are you here in Veilstone?"

"I'm picking up supplies and some Tm's."

"That's all I need to know." Paul said, lifting his panini and biting a chunk out of it. The melted cheese and ham melded perfectly with the tomatoes and toasted bread. Paul grunted appreciatively at the well made meal before placing it back down.

"So how's it going?" Ash started, it was rare for the purple haired man to ever start conversation.

"Good... Good..." He said, sipping his coffee "I'm getting a new team together for Legend's Plateau."

"A whole new team? There was nothing wrong with your old one." Paul said.

"My old team was to set in their ways." Ash said flatly. His old team could be compared to a dried out marble statue. There was nothing wrong with it, just that he couldn't shape it anymore and it would take far to much work to chip it into a different shape.

"I see..." Paul acknowledged, he could sympathize with the ex-champion, it was precisely the reason why his team often changed every 3 months.

"I have high hopes for this one though." Ash commented, "What about you? Any strong Pokemon you've acquired recently?"

"Not especially," Paul replied, staring out the window. "The same old team, Weaville, Torterra, Drapion, and Electivire."

"Only four?" Ash asked curiously.

"I only need four." Paul responded flatly "At least until the semi finals."

"Confident are we?" Ash asked, though he knew his rival had a right to be. His Pokemon were top notch when it came to terms of raw power.

"Of course." Paul said simply, looking at his watch for a moment before standing up. "I need to head home, its getting dark soon."

"Well... See ya then." Ash said, reaching out a hand in farewell.

Paul raised his eyebrows, but never the less took the proffered hand. "You will. At the tournament."

And then they parted ways.

* * *

The sky was split with a fork of lightning and the roar of thunder. The heavy rumble sounding seconds after the bolt of light. Cynthia sighed as she trudged her way home, a bag full of groceries slung over her shoulder as her black boots squelched against the muddy path. Of course it had to rain today of all days.

Cynthia briefly raised her hood to sweep her sopping blond hair out of her eyes, and in doing so, saw a figure not a hundred meters in front of her, apparently heading toward the same destination. It was a unusual occurrence to have any visitors in King's Impasse. Of course the view attracted a huge amount of tourists, but the prospect of scaling sheer cliffs and walls along with the amount of deadly Pokemon often warded them of.

The blond champion wondered what to do. Should she offer her place to the guy like a proper person would, or would she ignore him and be on her merry way? Option number two seemed the most preferable and she kept her reasonably slow pace behind the man. After brushing her hair out of her eyes again, she noticed something unusual, the rain falling on the man wasn't even touching him. Instead it was sliding of like there was a invisible umbrella on top of him.

She looked at his back curiously. From what she could make out of him, he seemed fairly tall, and from the backpack slung around his shoulders and the Pikachu that was illuminating the area in front of him with it's gentle electrical glow, she could assume that he was a trainer.

She raised a hand, about to brush her hair out of her eyes for the third time, before a massive force slammed into her limbs, freezing them and she collapsed onto the trail like a rag doll, ruining her black designer jeans. She thankfully managed to land on her knees, landing into the mud face first would have been unbearably humiliating.

The man had turned around now, and she noticed a small green and pink psychic type in his arms. A Ralts. Judging by the glow emanating from it's eyes and horns, she assumed that it had froze her limbs with a psychic attack. "It's rude to creep up on someone with out saying hello." The man said mildly, walking closer.

The glow of the Pikachu on his shoulder flared suddenly and then her breath caught in her throat, barely restraining a gasp as his face came into view, messy black hair and a handsome face sprang into sharp relief. "Ash." She breathed, before mentally berating herself. She hadn't seen him in over 3 years and he had left her alone. Alone. With no one to rely on. She wasn't supposed to treat him on a first name basis.

"Cynthia," He responded neutrally, tapping his Ralts on the forehead. The force slamming into Cynthia vanished and she got up with a sigh of relief, thankful that she had slung her grocery bags over her shoulder before she and set out.

She ignored the proffered hand and instead scrabbled up from her knees, feeling her cheeks flush. "What are you doing here Ketchum?" She said stonily, reverting to her cool and professional look that came with her position as Champion. She regarded him with distaste. Anger even. She had to have been awfully angry to miss the set of gleaming red eyes regarding the pair.

* * *

"Same thing you are, Shirona." Ash said, replying in kind, his eyes were taking in her disheveled figure, noticing the sunken bags under her eyes and the exhausted way she carried herself. He felt a brief stab of guilt, he was pretty sure that he hadn't looked anything like that when he had first become Champion.

Cynthia sighed and headed her way toward the massive ancestral home of the previous champions. Champions Villa. Only a person with the title of champion could get in, identified by the small amulet they wore around their necks. "It's my house now Ketchum."

Ash shrugged, looking at the looming building in front of them with a fond look in his eyes. "It may be your house, but it will always be my home." He replied, feeling Pikachu stiffen on his shoulder as the massive mansion came close. Then he felt warning sparks beginning to build on his starters cheeks. _Shit..._

He pivoted around on his heels, fingers closing around a pokeball before a blur of purple and red smashed into him, sending him toppling against the ground. Cynthia also received the same treatment, landing a few feet next to him. "Gengar?" He rasped, as he struggled to his feet, taking in the wraith like Pokemon. If he had been any slower, he was sure that the attack would have landed on the back of his neck instead of his chest.

By now Ralts and Pikachu were both standing in front of their trainer, awaiting orders, while Cynthia had managed to call out her Garchomp. Gengar laughed. No... chuckled was a better word, laughing implied joy, happiness. The grim chuckle echoed through the air.

Flicker. Ash groaned as the Gengar vanished from sight, the pitch black night long with the rumble of the thunderstorm ensured a perfect camouflage, now all it had to do was shut it's glowing red eyes, and it might as well of been invisible.

"Dragon Rush." The order sounded from behind him and he observed her Garchomp in action, a massive dragon lunging with the tips of it's claws bared and teeth viciously extended, blue fire dancing at the edge of it's claws. The lethal attack missed, and Garchomp was nailed with a Hypnosis attack, the massive dragon collapsing onto the ground asleep.

Gengar gave a maniac giggle and a mass of writhing purple matter appeared in between his hands. Sludge Bomb. The attack whipped through the air and splashed onto the ground, sending streamers of poison everywhere. Ash was bowled over by Pikachu as the attack came to close to his face and he caught of glimpse of Cynthia diving behind Garchomp. The poison wouldn't affect the ground dragon who was blissfully unaware of the chaos around it as it slept.

"Wake up, Garchomp!" Cynthia yelled, shaking it's massive head gently.

"Mind Reader!" Ash yelled from his position on the ground, Ralt's eyes glowed wine red, before nodding, her psychic powers already probing the surrounding area. Pikachu suddenly lunged, it's tail glowing white as it swiped at a pair of red eyes. The attack slammed into the ghost type sending it reeling.

"Ralts, confusion." Ash ordered coldly, the psychic type nodded, throwing the psychic attack at the Pokemon she had locked onto before. The Gengar was sent sprawling and Ralts quickly followed up with another confusion attack, using her psychic powers to lift the ghost type into the air. Then she began to squeeze. Gengar face contorted into a silent scream.

_No mercy,_

Her psychic attack was at the moment crushing it's windpipe. In a couple moments, the poisonous gas that the Gengar relied on for movement would have dissipated into the air, and without the buoyant gas that allowed it to float, it would be chained to the ground and useless.

Gengar gasped, scrabbling at it's own throat with it's hands, trying to desperately disperse the killer grip on his windpipe. The psychic type attack squeezed harder. _No mercy._The Gengar had been too confident, assuming that it's prey wouldn't know what to do when encountered with it's ability to camouflage into the darkness. And now, he would pay the price.

It slumped against the ground and collapsed, all the fight leeching out of it as the psychic force dispersed his poisonous gas into the air. It still had one last trick to play though, weakened it maybe, but it had just enough energy to send a sludge bomb toward the trainers. The toxins inside the attack were fatal. There were no pokemon centers around for at least 20 miles.

_Shit... _Ash thought as he watched the attack near his chest. He had made the same mistake again. He had assumed his opponent would have been to weakened to continue. He dimly heard Pikachu let out a scream. _I underestimated you. _Ash acknowledged, closing his eyes. Was this his fate? To fall before he regained what he had lost?

If so, then so be it.

* * *

The feeling of resignation to death was a terrible one. It felt like the very blood in her trainers had stopped moving, her horns picking up his subtle despair and what seemed to be grim acceptance. Such a feeling made her want to run. To flee the emotion that screamed death to her mind. But she couldn't. The emotion belonged to her trainer. Her silly, stupid, trainer and she was not about to lose him to some ghost on it's last legs.

_Get your hands off of him! _She yelled, determination and raw undiluted hatred pulsing through her veins.

Power flooded her mind. Had she been paying more attention, she would have noticed her body getting taller, her dress shortening into a ballerina's skirt, but instead she focused all of her power on the mass of poison moving toward her trainer. The ball halted, then reversed course, splattering into a thousand chunks against a tree. Ralts, now a Kirlia, paid no attention to that, instead finishing her work and grimly crushing the Gengar's windpipe. It collapsed against the ground. Knocked out? Maybe. Dead? Probably.

Ash opened his eyes. The close scrape with death he had didn't seem to faze him on the outside. On the inside, he felt numb. He swore he had felt his life flash in front of his eyes like countless people claimed happened to them. He shakily extended his arms, allowing a jubilant Pikachu to jump into his arms.

Cynthia he noticed was looking grimly at the collapsed heap of poisonous gas and sludge. She nudged it slightly with her boot. "It's dead." She announced grimly. Ash nodded, letting Pikachu gently onto the ground and instead looking at his new Kirlia. She had been awfully silent lately.

"Thank you." He said simply, tugging Kirlia up into his arms in an embrace.

Kirlia breathed. She was glad he hadn't congratulated her for what she had done. Killing, in any form, wasn't something to be congratulated. The psychic type buried her head in her trainers mud-stained shirt and again Ash was reminded of how young she actually was as she began to weep. All of them, Cynthia included stepped into the house.


	4. Rockets and Cranes

**AN: I feel like I should be groveling at your guy's feet. I know I've been absent for what, a month or so? ** **I am so sorry guys that it's taken me this long to get the next update of Legend to you guys, and I am even more sorry that the tournament doesn't start in this chapter. This chapter, is in it's essence, either a filler or just pointless fluff meant to develop Ash and Cynthia's relationship.**

**And now... on with a mild response to a review I received regarding this sites rules on the Mature rating for fanfictions, it's a bit late, but I'd like my opinions to be known so please bear with me! The mature rating, I feel, should mean Adult content, Gore, Violence etc. I think it's reserved for those fics that have amounts of the said content generously sprinkled in. As for fanfiction's policy with the other fics that have graphic descriptions of Sexual intercourse, or Violence to be removed from the site, I don't agree with it. I mean... the filter is there for a reason. M rated content is not shown to anybody... you have to select it, which I presume that the person doing so has full knowledge that the fictions that encounter will have adult situations or violence in them. I personally find some of the best fics out there are under a M-rating, and I think that if you removed those fics... that it would be a shame to the fanfiction community for depriving them of excellent fictions. **

******Rockets and Cranes**  


"I found that if I offered to cook for a girl, my odds improved radically over simply asking a girl out. Through my efforts to attract the opposite sex, I found that not only did cooking work, but that it was actually fun."-Alton Brown

He was folding a paper crane. It was undoubtedly, the oddest sight she had seen for a while. The former sinnoh champion was at the moment, working on the wings of the crane, and after tugging them out from the body, he bent the protruding spike of paper at the top to form the head.

"What are you doing Ketchum?" She asked as she stepped out of the shadows where she had been observing the former champion, still clad in a night gown.

"Folding a paper crane, what does it look like?" He lightly turned his origami creation around in his hand to check for any messy folds or scratches. "Don't you know that if you make a thousand, a wish will come true?" He said teasingly, setting down his finished creation on the coffee table.

Cynthia rolled her eyes, " You are such a child Ketchum." She muttered settling herself down in an arm chair.

" And your a shriveled up old hag." Ash retorted, turning around to Kirlia. " So you think you can do that Kirlia?" He asked, holding up another sheet of paper for her to fold.

Kirlia shrugged, _I'll try. _The psychic type lifted the piece of paper with her mind, and slowly began to fold it, getting down the beginning folds easily, but the later more complex ones took a while, so at the end with a second crane completed in her hands, Kirlia was exhausted. She chucked the piece of origami down next to Ash's and received a pat on the head in congratulations.

"Lucky for you Kirlia, you don't have to make a thousand. Just a hundred." Ash said cheerily, Kirlia pouted at him and started working on the next one. "It'll increase your psychic reserves, control, and power." He encouraged. He received another pout in reply, which just made him grin even harder, she seemed so much like a stubborn teenager at that moment.

Kirlia rolled her eyes, before taking another sheet of paper and began to bend it with her mind.

" This is how your going to train your pokemon?" Cynthia asked critically, watching Kirlia struggle through another paper crane. Normally she'd be throwing them against virtual battle simulators. One of the perks of being a champion.

Ash smiled and shrugged "Everyday tasks can be used as training material, and for these guys who aren't that powerful yet, it's a good way to get them ready for the tournament."

He tossed out his Gible and patted it affectionately on the head before ordering him to pick up all the trash out in the grounds in a minute. The little ground type was about to dive into the dirt before Ash said "With no tunneling."

Gible sighed, and prepared himself for a day of painful aches and bruises, his massive head combined with his stubby arms and legs weren't exactly sprinting material. He gave his trainer a chomp on the head before leaving for the gardens.

Ash gave the rest of his pokemon similar menial tasks and set them to work. Roselia was in charge of pruning the bushes with razor leaf. Snorunt got to work freezing water for ice cubes. It was his own way of training his pokemon along with satisfying his naturally lazy nature by cutting down the house work.

Ash nodded approvingly after watching them work for a while and went back into the house, picking up a poppy seed muffin while he was at it. He sat down in the breakfast table next to Cynthia. " Did you know that poppy seeds register on drug tests?" he asked curiously as he bit a chunk out of the muffin.

Cynthia rolled her eyes at Ash, which seemed to be her response to everything the ex-champion did and looked down at the news paper. _Legends Plateau:Tradegy or Success? _Read the head line. She rolled her eyes and tossed the paper into the bin. The press were like little children, feed them a candy and they'd be occupied for a while, until they came back expecting more.

" Anything I should know about?" Ash asked, leaning back into his chair. Cynthia shook her head, her curly blonde locks moving almost hypnotically. "Nothing you'd care about." Cynthia replied, sipping her coffee, already planning out how to get the press of her trail before they tracked her to her house.

If there was one thing she hated, it was being at the center of attention. Another thing they didn't have in common. Ash ate up attention like how he ate food. Which, if you didn't know, was really fast.

Ash rolled his eyes and affectionately watched Kirlia fold another paper crane. Fold, crease, then she'd drop it, occasionally cursing in her head and keep on working. He smiled slightly before going of to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Cynthia looked up curiously, before looking back down at her newspaper. Knowing Ash, he'd probably go get cereal or something akin to that. Little did she know how well a certain brown haired breeder had taught him.

* * *

"I need results! None of that BS you call research!" Giovanni spat at the cowering white robed scientist in front of him.

"Bu..ut.. Sir, give us a couple more days and were..."

"Get this idiot out of my sight." He ordered his aide. She made a neat bow and shoved the scientist out the door.

He felt like doing that thing in anime where they slammed their face against a desk. "Get me someone who actually knows what their talking about." He ordered, masking his frustration with action, and a massive Cuban cigar. But that was besides the point.

Another robed scientist walked into the room, before plopping himself down in a seat. "You called?"

.

"Give me the truth, plain and simple. How far along are we in the auric research department?" Giovanni demanded. There was a running bet among the scientists in Team Rocket for how long the boss could keep up his work before the stress killed him. The smart money was on 10 years. Anywhere below that, and they generally got fired the day after their bet was placed.

" Sir, we have made remarkable progress during these last few years..." He cut off as he saw his bosses teeth begin to grind the cigar to a pulp. _Cut the crap _was the underlying message.

"... We've made next to no progress." The scientist muttered defeated.

Giovanni heaved a short sigh before he reached under the desk and almost delicately pulled out a magic eight ball. The boss took out this trinket when he had no idea what to do. Clink. Clink. It was almost funny. The scientist thought as he watched the ball that'd decide his fate keep spinning.

"Roll again. It must be your lucky day. Get out of my office." Giovanni said.

The scientist hurried out of the room as fast as his legs would allow.

Giovanni took a massive puff on his cigar. Damn it all... He thought tiredly as he ran his finger through the graying strands of his black hair. World domination had never seemed so far away... and he certainly wasn't getting younger he thought wryly, looking at his reflection in the window.

He sighed and picked up the newspaper for today. If anything, it kept him up to date on current events. You never knew if some scientist would come up with a way to rule the world. _Legend's Plateau: Tradegy or Success? _Read the headline. He put down his cigar and began to read.

Legend's Plateau. Everyone's heard about it, the long anticipated tournament that comes around once per decade is finally just around the corner. Fans will rejoice to know that there are over 500 accepted applicants, and over a 1,000 are awaiting approval. Truly the tournament of the decade. So now what makes this tournament special? Well for one, for the first time in tournament history, memebers of the Elite Four and the battle frontier are allowed to participate. Champions are also allowed but there have been heavy complaints from the competitive battling industry that, that would lead to a excessive amount of champions and elite four in the final brackets of the tournament. However, participant Paul Shigeru, one of the fan's favorites to win, said. "What's the point? Let them join if they want. After all, the point of a tournament. Continue to 3-C for more on Legend.

Hmm... Giovanni grunted, reaching for the cell phone. He dialed a number from memory before placing the phone up to his ear. Oddly old fashioned for a person who had a multi-million dollar income. But as any good security officer knows, it's far to easy to plant a surveillance bug on any phone with digital conferencing.

"Cyrus."

"... This is a surprise Giovanni. I haven't heard from you in over a decade." Cyrus said, sounding utterly unsurprised as he spoke into the phone.

"I assume you've read the headlines in the newspaper to day?" Straight to the business.

"Who do you think I am? Jupiter?" Cyrus asked.

"Whatever. The point is... I see a way that both of our corporations can benefit from this." The leader of Team Rocket said softly, he knew how Cyrus worked, they had gone to college together. Dangling a carrot in front of a horse provided much more incentive than whipping it. Especially this horse.

"I'm listening." Cryus was all ears. Business was business. He could exchange verbal thrusts with his old rival later.

"Here's the plan."

Sizzle. Cynthia was still reading her news paper, but the heavenly scent of scrambled eggs and bacon was seriously messing with her focus at the moment. She took a deep breath of the culinary scent, she could smell the sizzling bacon and the sharp scent of melting Parmesan cheese. She never knew Ash was such a cook.

She wasn't the only one who was marveling at Ash's cooking skills. Kirlia was now on her 81st paper crane, and after pausing for a moment to marvel at her trainers skills, decided to hurry up or the food might get cold.

Outside, Roselia was now frantically hurling her razor leafs at the rose bushes outside. She loved her trainers scrambled eggs and if she tarried any longer, her share might get cold.

Snorunt... well Snorunt didn't really care. Unless Ash was cranking out some seriously good vanilla ice cream, she wasn't gonna do anything different. Snorunt moodily blew a puff of sub-zero temperature at the water in the ice cube maker.

Pikachu on the other hand, was lucky enough to be actually on Ash's shoulder while he cooked the meal.

Ash gave the bacon one final flip before dolling out strips onto plates that were sitting on the counter top. The side of scrambled eggs was sitting in a pot, and he gave one more dash of pepper before also placing the food on the plates.

"Breakfasts ready." He said simply, handing out a dish to Kirlia first.

Kirlia nodded and picked up a fork and chomped away at her portion, giving a happy little "Kirlia!" In thanks to her trainer. Ash smiled and ruffled her head affectionately before handing plates out to Gible, Roselia and Pikachu respectively. Snorunt, he knew hated warm food with a passion so he wasn't surprised when she didn't show up.

Ash smiled and began to eat.

Cynthia watched Ash and his pokemon eat. He really was a jerk, she thought annoyed before trying to wrench her eyes off of Roselia who looked like she was crying anime style out of joy. Scratch that, he was something so bad she didn't have a name for him.

Ash must have noticed her annoyed look because he offered innocently "If you want some, you just have to ask, Cynthia."

Cynthia glared at him and shut her mouth. There was no way she was going to ask him for food... She thought, watching Gible shovel the bacon strips down his gullet like it was going to disappear if he didn't eat it fast enough. There was absolutely no way she was going to ask him for food... just no way... "Can I please have some food?" She hated herself.

Ash gave her a smile, before passing a plate over to her.

Cynthia dug in. He really was a good cook. She reflected, feeling her tastebuds cry out in joy.

"What do you think?" He asked, a teasing glimmer in his eyes.

"It's good." Cynthia said bluntly.

"Just good?" Ash asked amused " Then I must be getting lazy, Brock taught me to cook that you know."

"You know him?" Cynthia asked curiously. She had heard the name Brock before, namely on a cooking show on Tv and on publicly televised breeding discussions.

"We traveled together for a long time..." Ash said simply. Brock had stuck with him until he had become a champion. A long time was a understatement.

"Hmm..." Cynthia mumbled through a mouth full of bacon. "Thanks for the food." She said, placing her plate down on in the sink.

Ash gave her another smile, which in itself wasn't rare, the ex-champion smiled constantly, but this one had some feeling in it. Not just the slightly forced ones he gave on a daily basis. "Your welcome. It's good to know that beautiful people appreciate my food." He teased.

Cynthia felt the heat gather in her cheeks. _Why the hell am I blushing? _She screamed at herself before replying dryly "Who? Roselia?" , watching the Grass type devour the food.

Ash shrugged "Well she counts." He said, patting her on the head, careful to avoid the poisinous spikes at the top of her head.

Cynthia nodded, before falling onto the couch. She always did like being on a full stomach. Ash had just inched himself up a couple notches on her scale.

"Though you may want to watch how much you eat, it wouldn't do for you to become fat now."

And... He went right back down to Zero.

"I hate you Ketchum."

"I love you too." Ash replied, settling himself next to her, his eyes fixed on the TV.

Cynthia turned herself away so he wouldn't see her blush. Damn champions.

**So... how didd you guys think I did portraying Ash and Cynthia's relationship? I was aiming for a kind of cute little fluffy type with Cynthia's antagonistic personality clashing with Ash's general fun loving nature. **

**Please review so I know what I need to improve on. A big thanks to all those who have reviewed!**

**Until next time-**

**Pen of Silver. **


	5. A Few Weeks Later

**AN: Hey guys, sorry for taking so long to upload this next chapter. But either way, I hope you enjoy. The pourpose of this chapter is to bring in Cyrus' plan to heighten the plot and to bring in more characters to develop. Also big thanks to Nauran for betaing this chapter. I owe him a bunch for that. Also, big thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/ and alerted this story, you guys give me the motivation I need.  
**

**Anyway, on with the story. **

* * *

Legend Chapter 5

A Few weeks later...

Perhaps it was the stress. The stress of constantly training his pokémon so that they'd be ready by the time the tournament came. Or maybe it was fear. Fear of losing again, after getting his hopes up that he'd be great.

Whatever the case, the unknown emotion that was driving him at that moment had prompted him to make a call at two in the morning. Several calls in fact. The first was to Brock, mainly to relieve his stress. For the first few minutes, Ash had unloaded all of his worries to his old friend, glad that someone would listen to the problem about when to give a dusk stone to his snorunt – was it too early? Would it be better to wait until the ice-type learned a better move set, then evolved to improve its already powerful defense?

And there was Kirlia – his little Kirlia had been fiercely adamant to her learning Attract. Despite his constant lectures that Attract was a move and nothing more, Kirlia kept seeing it as using her body to get her opponents to drop their guard, and to an honorable psychic-type like her, she'd do no such thing.

Brock had been nothing less than blunt about his advice – give the dawn stone to Snorunt as soon as you can. As for Kirlia, Brock said nothing. Ash had a slight suspicion that Brock agreed with the psychic pokémon's views but kept it to himself. After that piece of conversation got out of the way, they chatted about more mellow topics, such as how Ninetales was doing – Ash had a fondness for the fox, after all, he had helped his friend catch it when it was just a vulpix - and whether there had been any news from any of his other friends.

"Now that you mention it Ash, Dawn has been meaning to catch up with you for some time. Also, I keep on getting weird text messages from Paul. You might wanna check in on both of them," Brock commented.

So he did. He felt tiny pinpricks of guilt at keeping out of touch from his friend and former rival for such a long time, but he felt they would understand. After all, like him, Paul had the same drive to improve and strengthen his pokémon, and Dawn would understand the amount of time that training took. God knows how many times he had to sit next to her on his journey listening to her bounce questions about various move combinations off of him.

"Thanks for the advice, Brock."

"Don't mention it," Brock said airily. "Now I gotta go make dinner. You know how picky Ninetales is about her pokéfood."

Ash chuckled. "See ya."

He sighed and leaned back into the armchair he was in. Now to make those calls to Paul and Dawn...

The first he decided he'd call was Paul. The weird text messages that Brock had mentioned caught his attention. After all, his rival was anything but weird. Fiercely driven to training and maybe a tad bit too harsh when it came to pokémon that were useful, but never had he once heard that his rival had been "weird". That more than anything worried him.

"Paul speaking."

"Paul, how's Veilstone?" Ash cried cheerfully, knowing that going straight to the point was never a good idea with Paul.

"Fine, now can I ask why you're calling me at two AM?" Paul asked, sounding not the least bit tired. If anything, it seemed like he hadn't slept at all...

"I can't just check up on an old buddy?"

"First off, we're rivals, let's get that straight, and I highly doubt that you would call at two AM just to check up on me."

"Believe it or not Paul, that's what I'm doing," Ash replied easily. He'd played this game before, far too often for his liking. He needed to carefully breach the subject or Paul would shut him out and eject him. It was a risky game to play, and it was also the reason why no one knew much about Paul – they never quite had the guts to ask.

"Hnn." The grunt was laced with doubt, but he let the matter slide. "Well, everything's fine, now that you're asking. We've been preparing for the tournament, like you should be doing, and I've been relaxing in my free time."

"Paul relaxing? Wouldn't have thought I'd see the day," Ash said, having a hard time believing that _Paul_ of all people would take a couple moments of the day to relax. Yeah... he could see what Brock meant. Something was out of loop with his old rival.

"Well, if you can call it relaxing," Paul replied with a sigh, the static making a sharp hissing sound. "Candice has been driving me up the wall about helping her prepare for the tournament, though if it's a pain, it's at least amusing."

Ash's cranium began to connect several vague dots. "By chance, would Candice be the person you said you were planning to visit when you got back to Veilstone? And what's Candice doing in Veilstone anyway?" he asked, remembering his rival's elusive behavior about the exact reasons of his return to his hometown.

"No. I just bumped into her on the way to my brother's house," Paul replied flatly. The tone was obvious – drop the subject. "And Candice and Maylene are good friends."

"The very same brother that's supposed to be gone to a breeding competition with Brock?" Ash asked innocently, ignoring the hint, very glad that he had decided to read the breeding section of the newspaper in the morning.

"Yes," Paul said flatly.

"Just making sure," Ash said, pretty sure that his old rival wouldn't appreciate anymore prying into the subject.

"..."

"Anything interesting happen in Veilstone?" Ash asked absently, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Now that you mention it..." Paul said slowly.

"What?" Ash asked.

"It's nothing big, but you remember that abandoned warehouse facility we raided once?" Paul asked seriously, instinctively straightening in his seat.

"Yeah. How could I forget? It was the first time we decided to cooperate for once," Ash said, amused. It had been a mutual need that had got them to work together – Paul's grotle had gone missing and his pikachu had gotten stolen. Both of them had trailed the abductor to the warehouses in Veilstone, and for the first time, they had decided to take up arms together, so to speak.

What followed was the takedown of one of the greatest criminal empires Sinnoh had ever known.

"It could be nothing, but there have been reports of people popping in and out of there in the middle of the night. Weavile's confirmed it too, though he wasn't close enough to see their faces," Paul said.

"You don't think...?" Ash asked, leaving the questioned unfinished, his mind occupied with thoughts of white jumpsuits and orange hair.

"Team Galactic's starting up again? I doubt it. If you forgot, we burned down all the facilities we could get our hands on. And they'd need funds to start recruiting again. That amount of cash can't travel around without attracting attention," Paul snapped, like it was obvious.

Ash nodded quietly. Paul's logical breakdown made everything seem so easy. There was no way that Team Galactic could start up again, could it? Paul had been right – they had destroyed every piece of Galactic they could come upon.

"How's training been going?" Paul asked finally, after a moment of tense silence, with both of them reminiscing about the past.

"Good, good... I've sent my old pokémon back to Oak and I've been training a new team," Ash replied absently, also remembering the past. Had it really been five years since it happened? It seemed like only yesterday.

"A new team? You really think fresh pokémon with little to no experience can beat the trainers there?" Paul asked. "I mean, I thought you were going off your rocker when I saw you looking up Ralts on the ride to Veilstone, but a whole new team?"

"Technically, I got Pikachu, so it's not all new," Ash replied amusedly, easily slipping into the banter.

"Hnn... I might have to change my mind and start calling you pathetic again," Paul said seriously.

Ash was about to respond in kind before another voice interrupted.

"Paul! Who ya talking to?" The voice was undeniably upbeat, and the sense of cheer and happiness made the place sound like Christmas Eve over there. There was only one person that Ash knew that had that voice...

"Umm... Paul... Why are you and Candice together in the same house at two in the morning?" Ash questioned politely.

"Ash, I can explain," Paul began, before what sounded like a brawl started. Muffled grunts and noises echoed over to Ash's end of the phone. _Sure you can Paul... Sure you can._

"Hello..." Evidently, Paul had lost. "Who is it?"

"Umm... Hey... Candice," Ash said cautiously.

"Is this A-A-Ash?" she asked, dragging out the name with a giggle at the end.

"Yep."

"Hey, Ash, how's it going?" Candice asked cheerfully.

"Good... Can you put Paul back on?" Ash inquired.

"Sure! Hey Paul, you can get up now! Ash wants ta talk to you," Candice called, dropping the phone onto Paul from her very comfy position on his chest. She experimentally poked him... Hmm... He had a nice solid chest too...

"Hey, Ash," Paul said flatly into the phone. "This never happened, alright?"

"Your secret's safe with me," Ash promised. "So why is she over at your house again?"

"It's my brother's house and she needed a place to crash," Paul replied curtly, shoving Candice off his chest and dusting himself off.

"And you volunteered your place? Paul, first you're relaxing and now you're offering your place to sleep. What's wrong with you today?" Ash teased. "Are you getting soft on me?"

Click.

Ash stared at the phone. "He just hung up on me," he said to no one in particular.

"Well... knowing you, you probably deserved it," Cynthia grumbled from the opposite couch. The blond was absently sipping at her coffee, while reading a magazine. The uncomfortable stony silence that had pervaded the first week or so at the mansion had thankfully dissolved into sarcastic remarks and stare downs.

"Shut up," Ash said tiredly, not feeling up to exchanging the usual banter with the blond haired champion.

He lifted up the handset phone again and dialed another number. "Dawn?" he asked curiously into the phone after he heard someone pick up.

"It's Johanna actually. Now why do you want to speak to my daughter at two in the morning?"

"Hey, Johanna, it's Ash."

"Ash! It's been a while," Johanna said cheerfully.

"It certainly has, can I speak to Dawn?" Ash asked.

"Sure. Though you'll probably get a better conversation if you called maybe five hours later," Johanna said amusedly, gently reminding Ash that it was slightly rude to be calling at two in the morning.

"Oh... umm... Sorry?" Ash said, rubbing the back of his head guiltily.

"It's nothing to be worried about. I'm sure Dawn will be glad to see you," Johanna replied, brushing aside the apology.

Ash nodded and hung up. After replacing the phone in its cradle, he collapsed against the arm chair and looked around tiredly. Cynthia met his exhausted glance with one of her own.

"Coffee?" she offered tiredly.

"Thanks," Ash said, accepting the proffered cup and taking a sip. He promptly spat it out. "What is this?"

"Black coffee," Cynthia muttered in reply, falling over onto her side tiredly.

"You know I hate black coffee, right?" he asked, stifling a yawn with his right hand.

"Don't care," Cynthia grumbled, taking a mouthful for herself. Coffee was coffee, what did she care whether it was black or not?

"I'm going to teach you about coffee one of these days," Ash commented, his left eye slowly drooping downwards. It was obvious to anyone watching that either of them was going to fall asleep at any moment.

Ash let out a yawn. "I'm going to sleep..." he mumbled standing up, only to have exhaustion hit him like a hammer. Why did the damn Champions Villa have to be so big? The task of climbing the two flights of stairs to the guest room seemed like torture now at two in the morning.

"Never mind," he grumbled, falling back onto the armchair.

Cynthia didn't even try to get up, she just settled herself into the most comfortable position she could and curled up, trying to fall asleep.

Soon, she was almost motionless except for the slightest movement of her chest.

Ash sighed, and looked down at the champion. She looked so innocent, he thought absent-mindedly, with her blond bangs falling over one eye while she slept. Nothing like the powerful, determined champion the world seemed to make her out to be. He reached his hand out to brush the bangs out of her face, before he stopped himself.

It wouldn't do, he thought sternly, if he started getting soft on his soon to be opponent. He couldn't afford any mistakes at the tournament, and he was pretty sure that feeling any sort of affection to his future opponent was a weakness. But they were just friends... kinda... well not really friends... but it shouldn't effect his battling in any way, right?

He'd think about it in the morning. "Good night, Cynthia," he said simply, and settled himself into a comfortable position and began to fall asleep.

Unbeknownst to him, a small yellow mouse was watching the two trainers with what could have been sadness in his eyes. Pikachu sighed lightly as he stared down at his trainer's sleeping face. The half-smile on the lips was something he hadn't seen in a long time...

It reminded him of the trainer that he had seen the first time he was let out of his pokéball. Childish, free of all worries, unconditional kindness. Pikachu felt a small lump in his throat. He must have eaten too many oran berries he decided, swallowing tightly.

Pikachu sighed and, out of habit, settled himself on the arm rest that Ash was leaning on and started his silent vigil. It was a comfort thing.

* * *

The unmistakable sound of a coffee grinder roused Cynthia from her blissful slumber. After getting a grasp of her bearings and brushing her bangs out of her face, she looked up to see Ash and Kirlia making coffee. Of course, Kirlia was doing everything with her psychic powers and the training she had gone through was beginning to show in this simple task. The hours she had spent folding paper cranes with her mind had strengthened it to the point where moving the blades of the coffee blender was almost effortless.

Cynthia also dully noticed that the furniture was reorganized to a more comfortable placement. Obviously Kirlia's work as well. She felt an ice cold touch grip the small of her back and she swiftly pivoted on her heel, one hand instinctively flying to the pokéball containing her Garchomp, before stopping.

The dead eyes of a Froslass gleamed back at her. _Why on earth did you do that?_ It seemed to be asking.

"Sorry," Cynthia muttered, dropping her hand from her belt and sitting up on the couch. Froslass gave a regal nod and drifted past Cynthia without a backward glance.

"You're up," Ash commented dryly from the kitchen. His brown eyes looked almost amused as Froslass drifted up to him with a faithful "lass."

Ash handed his newly-evolved froslass a steaming cup of coffee, and with a touch, the cup froze solid and shattered. "Froslass!" he complained, picking up the pieces of tupperware and tossing them over to Gible. Gible snapped up the frozen coffee, cup and all, with a gulp.

Froslass gave him an almost bemused look and settled her ghostly frame on his shoulder. "Lass."

Ash nodded. "I know," he muttered in response to her glance, moving about the kitchen with Kirlia gracefully trailing behind him, twirling like a ballerina.

Cynthia frowned as she regarded the ghostly pokémon. "Did you just evolve her?" Cynthia asked curiously. The last time she had saw her, she had been a Snorunt.

"About an hour before you woke up," Ash replied holding up a flask of water which Froslass froze with another touch, and Kirlia ground up the block of ice with her mind. Ash added the crushed ice to the cup of coffee and stirred.

Cynthia nodded her quiet acceptance of the fact and looked at her predecessor. "What are you making?"

"A frozen cappuccino," Ash replied, adding in a squirt of chocolate syrup and a plastic straw. He handed the cup to a gleeful Froslass. "Ever since she evolved, she likes coffee for some reason." Froslass nodded, opened up her mouth and began to sip at the beverage from the straw that Ash had stuck in.

Cynthia internally heaved a sigh. Yet another culinary marvel by Ash devoured by his pokémon. It seemed like the only time he showcased his skills was to cook up a certain dish that his pokémon enjoyed. Whether it be french fries with ketchup for Pikachu, cinnamon buns for Roselia, or fillet mignon for his Gible.

"I don't suppose you thought about giving me a cup?" Cynthia asked icily, raising an eyebrow as she did so.

"Nope," Ash said cheerfully, taking the now empty cup from Froslass and beginning to wash it. Kirlia frowned and lifted the cup out of his hands and purged the residue of coffee and ice with a quick Psychic. Ash rewarded her with a pat on the head and a hug.

"By the way... we may or may not be having some visitors soon..." Ash said blankly, bringing up the topic with his usual indifference.

"Visitors?" Cynthia asked softly. The issue of coffee was long gone.

"Yeah... just a couple friends of mine," Ash replied, feeling the blonde's steely eyes clasp him with the force of a vice-grip that moments ago had been pleasantly annoyed.

"Need I remind you that this is also my house?" Cynthia snapped, feeling her carefully held together temper begin to foam over. He had the audacity to just invite people over to her house?

"No," Ash said simply. Any other time he would have mentioned how it was called the Champions Villa for a reason, but he figured if he wanted his body to stay intact, it was best to make a tactical retreat. Being a champion was also synonymous with knowing when your authority was being challenged and knowing what position you had relative to your opponent. His position was on shaky ground at the moment.

"Good. Now give me a reason why I shouldn't punt you out of this house right now?" Cynthia said, on the verge of doing just that.

"'Cause... Brock's a way better cook than I am?" Ash offered.

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. A meal from the master himself? Tempting... but not quite enough.

"He's also an excellent masseuse," Ash said quickly, seeing his ploy fall short. _Sorry__,__ Brock... _he thought guiltily.

"Fine..." Cynthia growled. Hey, the life of a champion was filled with stress and constant attention from the media. A massage and world-class cooking was too sweet of a deal to pass up.

Ash nodded. "Good, I figured you'd see things my way," he said cheekily. Roselia sighed from her careful pruning of the roses on her hands and started her Sweet Scent attack. Her master really had no idea how to deal with women, did he? Roselia thought.

Cynthia shrugged. "So, when are these friends of yours coming over?" Cynthia inquired, feeling oddly mellow at the moment. It was funny... she had almost been about to snap at him, but now along with the scent of roses and cream, it seemed like a much less appealing course of action.

"Well... In about a minute, they should be here," Ash replied. Roselia funneled out more of the Sweet Scent. She'd better be getting some nice treats for the favor she was doing.

"And how did they know so fast? Read your mind, did they?" Cynthia asked sarcastically, the scent of roses and cream wasn't quite strong enough to stave off all of her anger.

Ash opened his mouth to respond before a quick 'ding-dong' interrupted him. He moved to the door, quite aware of Cynthia's murderous eyes upon him as he opened the ornate eighteenth century cherry wood door.

"Hey, Ash!" A bubbly voice cried out.

Ash glanced back at Cynthia. If looks could kill, he'd be in heaven already.

Brock smiled amusedly, his perpetual squint giving him a much younger look. From behind him, Paul was looking none too happy, with Candice swinging from his arm.

"Heya, Ash!" Candice cried with a cheerful wave.

"Don't you have something to say, dummy?" Dawn asked cheerfully, inviting herself in without a thought of who exactly this house belonged to. She assumed it belonged to Ash. After all, he was an ex-champion.

Ash looked behind him again. Roselia was shaking her short green head and Kirlia was hiding behind Froslass. Pikachu, he noted, was lurking quietly in a corner. He met the furious gaze of a certain blond champion. "Umm... Sorry?" he said weakly.

Dawn stood up on her tippy toes. "What are you apologizing fo...A-mpph!"

Paul had his hand across her mouth and quietly dragged her out of the house.

Cynthia fixed Brock with a semi-murderous glare. "You better be one hell of a masseur," was all she said as she vanished back into her house.

Brock gave a confused look to Ash before shrugging and following the simmering champion into her house.

Paul released his grip on Dawn and sighed. "Pathetic, Ketchum," he said almost pityingly.

"Tell me about it," Ash replied. He had a feeling that scrambled eggs and bacon wouldn't fix this one.

* * *

Cyrus looked up at the sound of shoes on gravel. "About time you got here." He grumbled tiredly brushing his hair out of the way and stood up, dusting of his handmade jacket as he did so.

"Cut the crap."Giovanni growled, not exactly in the cheeriest of moods after hiking up to the peak of Mount Cornet. "Now why did you want me to come to this arceus forsaken place?" He snapped, looking around at the sorroundings. Nothing special, it could have been any one of the peaks that existed in the mountian range.

Cyrus smirked and with drew a chain from the side pocket of his jacket. "As a fellow buisness partner, I suggest you shut up and watch." He said as he walked up the crumbling steps to a flat plateau on the peak of the mountain.

Sorely tempted to shoot his co-worker in the back with a small caliber weapon, Giovanni resisted the urge and obliged, his hand made leather shoes forcing their way up after Cyrus.

Cyrus held up the chain. It was delicate as glass, and the color of blood and wine. The individual links glistened softly in the dying light of the sunset behind them. A quiet aura of danger exuded from the object, the same aura that a masterball exuded to a trainer, or a suitcase full of bills to a company.

Giovanni frowned as he observed the object, it looked like a trinket, one that you could get at any tourist shop, but the unusual sheen and coloring begged to differ. "What is it?" Giovanni whispered. It was a unusual moment of respect from the crime boss.

"I call it the red chain." Cyrus said simply. "It was designed to harness the powers of both Dialga and Palkia."

"Why did you want me to come here?" Giovanni asked. There had to be some reason... yet he couldn't puzzle out one, there was no gain for his partner, simply loss.

"As a show of faith. You told me your plans, I should return the favor." Cyrus said calmly, unwinding the red chain and holding the string of red glass high in the air. "Even the gods bend their will to time." He whispered and tossed the chain high in the air.

Clink.

The air was suddenly rent with the sounds of crackling thunder and lightning. And suddenly a sky blue portal snapped open on the ground. A shriek rent the air, and the static in the air dispersed into the sky. The chain elongated, wrapping itself around the shadowy figure in the portal with a audible snap.

Cyrus looked over at his partner, who was now dumbstruck. "Also as a warning." He whispered. "Never betray me."

He turned back toward the portal.

"Now Giovanni, it's my pleasure to introduce you to the lord of time. Dialga."

**Read and Review Guys! I need to know how I can make this story better.**


	6. Let the Games Begin

**AN: Yeah... it's been a while guys. I really have no excuses other than the fact that I've had school to deal with. But who am I kidding? I've had all winter break to work on this... and well... Uggh. Still I've managed to scrape something together. Its not my best work... but I feel like I can steer this story in several directions but I have no idea which one to choose... But regardless. I'm rambling and I'll leave you guys to read. **

**This story would not have been here today if it weren't for all the kind comments and support I've gotten. So here's my late christmas present to you all. **

**-Pen of Silver**

* * *

Tomorrow is the dreams of today and yesterday is but the memory of today.

Let the Games Begin

2 Months Later...

"Psycho Cut," Ash ordered watching his Kirlia's arms glow a light pink sheen before she pirouetted and spun high in the air, slashing while she danced. Her target was a pillar of stone in the middle of the room. Multiple scratches and a high pitched keening sound like metal scraping against metal rang out in the air. When Kirlia landed, he saw that the pillar had been lacerated with an army of scars, all at least an inch deep.

Ash nodded approvingly as he inspected the pillar, he took a couple steps back "Psychic."

Kirlia's eyes glowed purple, then the pillar in the room suddenly twisted to the side and then contorted itself into an unusual U shape, before Kirlia compressed it with a clap of her hands. Plink! The smooth ball of stone fell onto the floor with an audible click. Ash tossed it lightly in his hands. "Good work." He said simply, admiring the smooth contours of the sphere in his hands. "We're moving onto marble pillars tomorrow." He said.

Kirlia looked at her trainer curiously "_What are you doing with all those stone balls anyway?" _ She inquired with her mind as she followed her trainer.

Ash smiled mysteriously and patted her on the head. "You'll see." He said absent mindedly as he continued walking. With a short tap, he returned Kirlia to her pokeball.

Ash stopped in front of a frosty cold door. The peephole was frosted shut and he could barely make out a field of white.

Ash sighed and looked into the adjacent window already afraid of what he'd find. He threw open the door. A gorgeous arctic landscape met his eyes. The very air was thick with snowflakes as Frosslass materialized behind him, her Snow Cloak ability masking her body perfectly. "Lass..." It murmured.

"Not bad at all..." Ash approved, looking around at a crater in the ground. "You have that move down now?" He asked.

Frosslass rolled her eyes _Of course... _ She said smugly, extending one of her delicate frozen hands. A sphere of the purest ice slowly began to wreath the appendage, the very air around it freezing into snowflakes.

She looked at her trainer questioningly, the sphere in her hands writhing as she held it under her control.

Ash nodded.

Frosslass smirked and with an almost contemptuous movement, tossed the sphere of ice onto the ground. The whole room shuddered as a massive dome of ice appeared, the temperature suddenly dropping. He breathed in snow with his first few breaths. Frosslass gestured with her hand and the whole thing shattered, sending chunks everywhere as the massive sphere exploded, leaving another crater in the ground.

Sheer Cold, the strongest out of all the Ice Type moves. It was also one of the hardest moves to learn, requiring a temperature so cold that even ice type Pokémon themselves cautioned themselves against this move. It was the strongest move in her arsenal, and also the hardest to aim, if it was even a hair of, the dome of ice became nothing more than an igloo.

"I'm impressed." Ash stated, patting the Ice and Ghost type on the head before quickly withdrawing it as his metacarpals began to turn white. Frosslass smirked _did you expect anything less? _ She demanded, floating easily up to chest height.

"Not really." Ash admitted wryly, returning her to her pokeball.

Gabite was in the next room. The dragon type had evolved when Ash had decided that they were getting nowhere with training and that the best way to do it was to lock Frosslass and Gible in the same room, and come back 20 minutes later.

He had gone in a Gible, and came out a Gabite. It was a couple days before he decided to talk to Ash again. Frosslass had taken malicious glee in the task and judging by her smile when she had come out of the room, she had been very well satisfied.

It was hard to imagine the Dragon ever being clumsy or slow now, Ash reflected as he watched Gabite dodge Roselia's razor leafs with effortless grace, before moving in for a lethal Dragon Claw attack. Roselia petal danced, spitting a fountain of rose colored petals at the dragon type out of one of her bouquets on her hand before dancing backwards.

"Enough," Ash called, stepping forward. Gabite shook his head and folded his arms marching out of the room proudly. Roselia did a polite bow, before getting returned to her Pokeball. Ash bowed back, a polite little incline of his head as the rose Pokémon vanished in a beam or red light.

Ash pocketed the pokeball and set off for the kitchen, sure to find Brock experimenting with the wide array of ingredients there. Whistling tunelessly, the trainer walked off toward the kitchen, admiring the lavish decorations as he did so. Cynthia had taste, he admitted as he paused to inspect what looked like an authentic Flame Plate in a velvet cushion.

Ash briefly contemplated opening the case, before he discarded the idea. Now walking quicker than before, he made his way down to the kitchen only for the scent of a bubbling potato stew in a pot to greet him. He inhaled deeply, Brocks specialty was soup or stew of any kind. The world renowned breeder and chef had perfected the dish enough while traveling with him. He didn't quite have Brocks knack for mixing in herbs and balancing the thickness of the stew to the ingredients within, but he made up for that by being a ninja with a frying pan.

Ash smiled as he walked into the kitchen, finding two people already seated at the counter top. One was Paul, his tousled purple hair and sweaty forehead told Ash that he had been training earlier in the day. The other person, he noticed with a start, was Cynthia. The blond champion was obviously going to milk Brock's services for all they were worth.

At the moment she looked rather calm. The blond champion actually hadn't taken the others presence in her household too badly, as long as they stayed out of her sight and didn't mess with her private rooms or the decorations she more or less tolerated them.

Of course there were exceptions, for example last week Dawn had touched a century old Cubone skull and had nudged it of its display, shattering the delicate material into a thousand pieces. Needless to say, Dawn didn't sleep inside the house that night.

Paul looked up from the magazine he was reading as the sound of the door opening reached his ears "Ash." He acknowledged.

Cynthia sat stonily silent on the opposite end of the table, quietly sipping her coffee.

"Paul, Cynthia." Ash greeted as he took a seat next to his former rival, watching Brock bustle around the kitchen as he diced up potatoes and sprinkled in various herbs into the plain ceramic pot.

Cynthia glared at him, telling him that he still wasn't quite off the hook and resumed sipping her coffee, looking oddly sedate as she did so.

Brock looked up from the simmering pot of stew for a quick greeting. "Hey Ash, how does the stew smell?"

"Like heaven." Ash responded truthfully, already anticipating the first spoonful.

Cynthia's lips quirked into a slight smile.

"Yeah... Nice to know Ash... But this was a special request by , so... you can't really have any." Brock said, like every word was poison to his lips. Cynthia's smile grew wider.

If there was a hell, it couldn't be worse than this. Ash decided, looking at the smug blond champion with piercing brown eyes. "I hate you so much..." He grumbled, watching Kirlia dance circles around the kitchen floor.

"I love you too." Cynthia said an evil smirk on her face. Revenge was so very sweet.

Payback's a bitch... Ash conceded, now fully understanding the meaning of that saying.

Paul rolled his eyes, before a girl dressed in pure white and light blue bounced into his room. "Hey Paul!" Candice cried cheerfully as she all but launched herself into his arms.

Paul grunted as she slammed into him, but he still managed to catch her gracefully and place her down onto the ground. "Have you been drinking coffee?" Paul asked as he rubbed his arms.

"Yep. Why?" Candice asked as she plopped herself down onto a seat next to Cynthia.

Paul sighed "Just wondering..." He muttered as he shook his head, looking back down at an article about a new Carbos formula that was said to be two times as effective as the normal kind. Paul frowned slightly as he scrolled down the article. The researcher and head scientist caught his attention. Max Petalburg... He mused as he read through the paper.

Absorbed in the paper as he was, he noticed too late that Candice was pouting. A pouting Candice was never a good sign. "I'm bored..."She whined plaintively tugging at Paul's sleeve.

"What are you, 6?"Paul snapped as he looked up from his magazine.

"19 actually."Candice said with a smile that could have lift up the dark side of the moon. The radiant teen collapsed neatly onto Paul's lap. "You should come rock climbing with me." Candice proposed, looking sweetly at Paul.

Ash was pretty sure that you had to have no heart to refuse Candice when she wore that look. Thankfully, that's exactly what Paul specialized at. "No." He said curtly, returning back to his magazine.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"An extra word isn't going to make a difference." Paul flipped to another page in his magazine. You had to hand it to man, when it came down to it, he had nerves of steel.

"You're so mean..."Candice pouted as she settled herself on his lap.

Brock watched the group with a nostalgic smile, how many times had he seen this scene? Except back then it had been him, Ash, and Misty. Memories of an orange haired girl with a mallet sprang into his mind.

"Soups done." He announced as he placed the bubbling pot in front of Cynthia.

With a smirk toward Ash's direction, she dug in.

Her taste buds exploded.

Such was the skill of Brock.

Ash watched her internal monologue of joy as she ate her food with a speed that surprised even him. "Stupid woman." He sighed as he lifted Kirlia off her feet and plopped her onto the table. Pikachu shrugged and picked at the opening to a packet of ketchup.

Cynthia sighed and dropped her spoon into the bowl with a hollow clunk. She leaned tiredly backwards into her seat and with her blond haired splayed out and her eyes closed Ash could almost believe she was the teen ager she could have been. He averted his eyes and sighed, looking morosely down into his cup of coffee, what would he have been like, he wondered, if he had never become the champion? Happier maybe? A small vestige of regret tugged at his stomach. Just a little. Before he silenced the impulse.

He was here to win. To reclaim what he had lost all those years ago. Nothing else mattered.

Kirlia's horns twitched slightly as she felt the slight emotion emanating of her trainer… It felt like… Regret? Pikachu lifted his head and settled it onto his trainers lap, like a yellow housecat.

Ash smiled and lightly ran his fingers over his pokemon's smooth ears as he watched Paul and Candice chat. "I'm Training." He announced as he stepped out of the room and back into the familiar training halls before a voice stopped him.

"Not Quite…" Cynthia said coldly, her momentary content dispelled like a flash, "I'm coming with you." She stood up from her and walked after him, black shoes clicking against the ground ignoring the eyes on her she folded her arms proudly.

"Whatever floats your boat." Ash said lightly as he made way into a training room. Cynthia's shoes clicked audibly against the floor as they walked down the hall in uncomfortable silence. The scuffed and scratched wooden flooring creaked slightly underneath their weight. Ash looked at Cynthia, appraising her like she was a piece of jewelry on display wondering whether he should buy it.

"Why are you really here?" Ash asked simply after they spent almost a minute in awkward silence.

"Fight Me." It was an order, not a request.

Ash straightened his back, "Why?" He asked cautiously.

"I want to see how strong you've become. A new team is a new team. But are you still the same trainer that I beat all those years ago?" Cynthia replied her fingers straying toward her belt.

"Are you sure?" Ash asked "No one here will know who won expect for the two of us."

"And that's how it should be," Cynthia replied steadily, her chosen pokeball in her hands.

"I suppose I have no choice huh?" Ash said as he selected a pokeball from his belt.

"Nope. Roserade." She said, releasing the elegant Pokémon, the twin bouquets of roses sparkling with poison in the harsh light of the training room.

"Frosslass." Ash said simply, dropping the pokeball. The frozen ghost Pokémon materialized with a sadistic smile on her face. "Win." He said simply.

_Of course_. Frosslass said with her mind, an ice beam already pulsating in her hands.

"Roserade, Protect!" Cynthia yelled, not a moment too soon, as a lightning bolt of ice slammed into a green barrier. The ice beam split into two, sending twin clouds of dust as they screeched of the protect and slammed into the specially reinforced iron walls.

"Energy Ball, make it quick!" Cynthia ordered, already gauging the strength of that ice beam, judging by the scars in the walls, it was cold enough to cause iron to freeze, but what really caught her attention was the way the walls were cracked into two. The only way that occurred was with a rapid increase, then decrease of temperature. Or in this case, it was the other way around, Cynthia observed. Ash had obviously trained her to maximize her ice attack damages.

Roselia sprang forward, her bouquets glittering a unearthly shade of green as, like a ball room dancer, sprang delicately into the air and flung out energy ball after energy ball. Craters impacted the ground as Frosslass immediately reacted, phasing in and out of existence as the balls of glittering energy passed straight through her unearthly body.

"That was a crude attack." Ash observed calmly, a small light of satisfaction in his eyes.

"Not quite." Cynthia said a wicked glimmer in her eyes. "Roserade Now!"

Shit… Ash thought as the energy balls that had missed, hadn't dissipated into the ground like they should off, instead, they melted like water and immediately sprang up tendril after tendril of plant material.

The plant matter shot out and snared Frosslass in a strangle hold, leeching energy away with the single minded intensity of a machine.

"Leaf Storm, Roserade!" Cynthia commanded the taste of victory already on her tongue.

"Freeze this place Frosslass!" Ash snapped, watching his precious pokemon struggle in the tendrils of leech seed as he watched a tornado of leaves spiral her way.

Frosslass heard the order, and obeyed, immediately plummeting the body temperature around her, freezing the vines around her into ice, then shattering them with a swish of her frozen hands.

"Blizzard." Ash ordered.

Frosslass nodded, exhaling out a massive globe of snow and ice. The whole battle field was rendered into a winter wasteland as the snow cut visibility down to close to nothing, cutting the leaf storm to bits.

"Double team." Ash ordered.

Frosslass nodded and with a quick blur, there were two ghostly snow pokemon standing in front of him.

"Hail."

The air was filled with snow.

Cynthia blinked as snowflakes caught themselves into her eyes and she squinted. Visibility was down to practically zero as she snow whirled and jump. The stinging hail on her neck and chest didn't help either.

Though, the more pressing problem was that Frosslass' ability, snow cloak pretty much rendered her invisible in the current weather conditions.

"Roserade, light screen." She ordered, anticipating a special attack from the snow ghost.

"Nice try." Ash said from the opposite side of the field, "But you were too slow."

_What?_ Cynthia thought as Frosslass suddenly appeared in front of Roserade from the snow, a frozen ghost, her white arm encased in an icy aura.

"Ice punch." Ash ordered.

"Dodge!" She commanded, her heart in her throat as Roserade jumped out of the direction of the fist.

"Don't let up." Ash cried, as multiple fists suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Roserade!" Cynthia cried as she spotted a fist heading toward her pokemon's chest. Then it just vanished. Before another attack connected and Roserade was sent flying.

_Double Team… _She thought. Frosslass had cloned herself and then hidden the copies into the hail. Meaning that only one of those attacks would actually do damage, though… she had no way of knowing which one was real, and which one was a clone.

"Leaf storm, spread it out!" She ordered, watching her pokemon send ethereal funnels of leaves into the hail. It was a crude attack but it at least ensured she'd land a hit.

The whistling of the leaves through the wind was audible.

Clink. The sound of leaf on ice rang throughout the air.

"Hyper beam!" She ordered pointing in the general direction of the noise.

A massive orange beam roared out of Roserade's bouquet.

The sound of a substitute popping out of existence was audible.

"Nice try," Ash's voice rang out into the snow. "But you forgot something, Sheer Cold."

A ball of ice suddenly materialized from the ceiling, like a massive ice chandelier as Frosslass drifted quietly out of the ceiling.

_Of course… a ghost type _Cynthia thought.

Frosslass sent the ball whirling at Roserade, a frozen deadly beachball.

A sphere of ice appeared in the center of the arena, whether it had hit or not, she couldn't tell. Then with muted terror, she waited for it to explode.

And explode it did.

BOOM!

Paul sighed and he sipped at his coffee " There they go again…" He muttered as he felt a explosion shift the table three feet to the left, the untended cups of coffee shaking in their saucers.

"Is this what their usually like?" Dawn asked wide eyed from her seat.

"Compared to when we were all teenagers… it's actually pretty mild." Paul replied amused looking back down at his magazine.

"They were worse when they were younger?" Dawn asked amazed as she looked at Brock.

Brock nodded sagely, a fond smile on his face. "When we first met Cynthia, she was a pipsqueak, a cute one mind you, but still a pipsqueak. They probably went at it hours everyday before both of them gave up. Though mind you, it was always Cynthia who started it off."

Candice lifted her head, as a cool breeze whistled throughout the room. "That's one strong Ice attack," She commented quietly, a far cry from her normal cheerful nature.

Paul shrugged "I wouldn't expect anything else from Ash."

"Or Cynthia." Brock put in his two cents. He slipped out of his chair. "I'm gonna go check up on them actually… I bet they blew up a room or something."

"I wouldn't put it past those two…" Dawn muttered as she recalled how scarily powerful Ash's Pokemon could be and against the current champion… she wasn't quite sure who'd win to be honest.

"Ouch…" Ash grumbled as he shoved of a disintegrated section of a wall of his chest. He looked up to see a small ballerina like Pokemon standing with her eyes glowing an unearthly teal color. Ash reached out with his hand before it impacted with an invisible, slippery surface.

Barrier… He surmised as he tapped the side of the mental construct with his fist.

Kirlia turned around and lowered the barrier, dumping a cloud of dust onto the two of them.

"Yo, Cynthia, you still alive?" Ash yelled as dust clouded around both of them.

"Screw you Ketchum." Cynthia snarled as her Garchomp shoved a collapsed part of the ceiling off her leg. "Do you know how much these rooms cost?"

"Well you can afford it can't you? Millionaire Champion and all." Ash countered cheekily as Kirlia began to clear the surrounding area of debris with her psychic attack.

Ash sighed and pushed outwards with his aura, shoving away sections of the ceiling off the floor. "I may have over done it with the Sheer Cold…" Ash muttered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"No really?" Cynthia said sarcastically, walking toward him obviously with the intention of yelling at him or something of that nature, before her black boot caught on a piece of debris. She braced herself for the impact.

And being the gentle man he was, Ash let her fall, before halting her impact with the lightest trace of his Aura.

She was essentially floating an inch above the floor. Cynthia spoke through gritted teeth. "let me go Ketchum."

"As her majesty wishes." Ash responded, releasing his control and allowing her to smack her face neatly into the ground.

Ouch. She really didn't think that one through did she? Kirlia observed as the blond champion got onto her feet, her mouth open to deliver probably some ultimatum of sorts before a voice stopped her.

"The hell happened here?" Brock said from behind the two, his squinted eyes glaring at the two youths in the center of the room.

"Blame Ketchum." Cynthia said automatically, her finger pointing in Ash's direction.

"Fine… Fine… I may or may not have used Sheer Cold and ordered Frosslass to detonate the thing without thinking about the consequences." Ash conceded, rubbing the back of his head.

"Typical Ash…" Dawn muttered from behind Brock, before coughing as the cloud of dust reached her lungs.

"Hey," Ash protested indignantly. "I'm not that bad…"

"I beg to differ Ketchum." Cynthia replied dryly, dusting of her heavy black jacket before marching out of the room. She needed to get this dust out of her hair.

Ash sighed and watched Cynthia's retreating back. Hey Cynthia!" He yelled out. She turned around and quirked her eyebrow, the universal signal for "What?"

"Good Battle." He said with a lopsided grin.

Cynthia shrugged her shoulders and continued walking, one step after another. She felt the ghost of a memory flit through her head at the words.

"_Nice Match Kid. What's your name?" _The voice flashed through her head. She felt the hint of a smile on her lips; he had actually called her kid back then, even though they were practically the same age, her, a budding trainer, and him the champion who had accepted an innocent battle request from a girl with only 6 gym badges.

She turned around on impulse "You too." She said, her voice penetrating through the chatter of Dawn and Brock.

He smiled once. The part of him that she remembered, the benevolent champion that she had faced with shaking knees resurfaced for just an instant. Then it was gone.

Ash ruffled the top of Kirlia's head affectionately, "Thanks for keeping me safe, Kirlia," He said simply patting her lightly.

_It was Nothing. _She murmured gently with her mind.

Ash nodded and turned to gaze at Brock with Impassive eyes "How much longer until the tournament?" He asked.

"It's in about a week. But we should get there early. Scope out the competition." Brock said simply hands already dropping to his pocket to take out his cell phone.

"Then let the games begin." Ash murmured simply. Pikachu felt the thrill that ran up his trainers shoulders and he felt the familiar feeling of competitiveness spark into his body, cheeks sparking in response to the emotion.

"Damn it Giovanni, get out of the way!" Cyrus cursed as he dove to the side, feeling the attack graze his shoulders. Time itself bent to the pokemon's will and like history has shown, time is hardly gentle to its inhabitants.

The legendary pokemon roared, or rather screamed, a terrible grating sound before it launched another attack. This one was charged red and blue, and tore open a massive hole in the fabric of time.

A pulsating portal was formed in the air. Unusual circular patterns carved themselves into the rocky plateau as the portal tore open, revealing the hall of time. One of the more interesting side effects of Dialga's attack, Roar of Time.

Giovanni yanked up his colleague and they both gaped in awe for a moment. Just a moment. It was an impressive action for two of the most hardened, evil men in history. Before another ear wrenching roar split the air, shaking them out of their trance.

"The hall of time…." Giovanni whispered, the term coming back from decades ago, when he had scoured the library at Canalave City, reputedly the oldest collection of texts in the world for a clue, any clue on the secret to world domination.

Cyrus matched the man's wicked smile "Of course…" He could have almost purred those words.

The ability to transcend time itself…. For a crime organization it was an invaluable ability.

"The first matter of business is restoring team galactic to full strength…" Giovanni said, observing the portal. His clenched fist gave away his excitement. He seemed almost oblivious to the thundering pokemon behind them, restrained by only a red chain.

"Which means eliminating a couple annoying trainers on the way." Cyrus said amused, already thinking back to the date where his mighty organization had fallen to two young trainers. "July 17th."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Giovanni said before off handedly saying "I've never time traveled before, must be a new experience."

Cyrus chuckled, in an oddly good mood. "You know what they say, you only live once." He said, he was in the mood for a cigarette right about now…

A massive paw came down like the hammer of a righteous god, splitting the earth itself.

"SHIT! Move it Damnit!" Giovannit swore as he hurled himself out of the way. This time their positions were reversed as Cyrus hauled him to his feet and threw him unceremoniously headfirst into the portal created by Dialga's attack before diving after him, Dialga's jaws at his heels.

The portal closed behind them, an ominous bang splitting the night as Dialga shrieked and screamed. Then the sound became more muted before in vanished all together. He opened his eyes and gasped.

He was stuck in a massive hall…. It gleamed with shades of silver and chrome and an indefinite number of arches flashed and showed scenes from millenniums past.

Of Aggron and Charazards clad in metallic armor, their attacks lighting up the skyline

Of a man dressed in a distinctive blue outfit… a odd pulsating ball in his hands

Of what looked like present time with two people, one with platinum blonde hair and another with pitch black facing against each other. A massive roar from the crowd as the whole stadium was engulfed in smoke.

And a city, made of massive steel and distorted stone and unusual floating pillars of rock.

_It is what has passed and what is to be. It is the past and the future. It can be yours. For a price._

The voice rang through his head. And what a voice! It chimed like bells in the wind and almost seemed to draw him closer… closer… to one of the arches in the doorway.

"On what terms?" Cyrus inquired his hands scrabbling at his belt for a pokeball, a true schemer, through and through.

A presence filled his mind. It sifted through his thoughts and intentions. Memories. Thoughts. Dreams. All was laid bare.

_You bore me. Begone._

And suddenly he was breathing in massive breaths of salty air. The ocean stood in front of him and a distinctive building rose out of the horizon like a monolith. A department store it seemed.

"Your finally here."

Cyrus turned around to meet Giovanni's annoyed glare.

"let's go." Cyrus muttered, shrugging his vest and walking toward the department store.

He wasn't exactly in a talking mood.

"Hmm… Hey Cynthia!" Ash yelled.

"What?" Cynthia grumbled from the dining room table. She was contracting a builder to come repair the room that Ash and she had destroyed. Needless to say, she wasn't in the best of moods.

"Is my plane still here?" Ash asked curiously, popping his head into the dining room.

"Your plane?" Cynthia asked dryly. "Last I remember that plane belongs to the current champion." Which went without saying, was her.

"So it is still here." Ash deduced cheerfully, plopping himself down in a seat next to her. "So what is our fine champion up to today?" He asked, the events of yesterday already forgotten.

"Contracting a builder. To repair the room that YOU broke." Cynthia snapped signing at the bottom of the slip she was working on.

"Well… to be fair you did challenge me." Ash said, the ever present Pikachu on his shoulder. He peeked over her shoulder curiously. "See, only 500,000. That's like chump change for someone like you." He said easily.

"Or like you." Cynthia shot back.

"Not really." Ash said dryly, leaning back into the century old wooden chair. "The league association took away most of my winnings as champion and in case you didn't know, I've been living on a deserted island for the last few years."

"Why'd you do that? Didn't you have a house or something to go back to?" Cynthia exclaimed, now looking over the state of his clothes in a new light. His hat in particular looked really beat up.

"I've been traveling ever since I was 12. I never really had a place to go back to." Ash replied, the slightest tinge of melancholy in his voice.

Cynthia didn't really know how to reply to that. Should she just laugh at him? Or present a small amount of pity? "Well you could have just asked to stay here. I wouldn't have minded." She muttered. She looked over to meet Ash's wide eyed glance. "What?" She asked.

Ash smiled. "Well you don't seem to happy with the rest of the guys for staying here." He observed.

"That's because their annoying." She said flatly. "It's like living with a flock of spearrow."

"And I'm not?" Ash asked amused as he gently played around with Pikachu's ears.

"No…. You're just… Different." Cynthia said hotly, a healthy flush rising in her cheeks. How had she let herself get stuck in this situation again?

"I never got the chance to thank you for letting us stay here." Ash forged on. "Even though I'm techniqually allowed to come here… It was rude of me."

"Are you getting soft on me Ketchum?" Cynthia murmured.

Ash leaned the side of his face against his left hand. Pikachu twitched on his shoulder. "Maybe I am." He replied as he looked into the adjoining room. Dawn and Brock were both settled on the sofa, watching a breeding show. While Paul, with Candice on his lap, were looking at a laptop. Occasionally Candice would laugh and tweak his nose to which Paul would grumpily poke her in the forehead with an odd half smile on his face.

"But it's more like I had a long time to realize what I missed when I was stuck on that island." He said steadily, still staring at his friends.

Cynthia sat there quietly, not sure how to respond.

He smiled at her, and Kirlia materialized out of the air. Her horns detecting a strong emotion in the air. "The next time we have a battle. It will be at the tournament." He said.

Cynthia smirked "Count on it." She said, looking her rival right in the eye.

Ash nodded and joined his friends in the living room. He was quickly accepted into the group, Cynthia observed as the former champion greeted Paul along with making what seemed like a snide comment about his current position.

Cynthia sighed and closed her eyes. They planned on setting off on a plane tomorrow. Maybe she'd finally get a moment of peace and quiet in her house. The house which might as well of been deserted if it weren't for the maids.

An arm gripped her firmly. She yelped and opened her eyes to see Ash pulling up and away from her laptop to the rest of the group. "Come on Cynthia, you can't be anti-social all the time." He said easily, shoving her onto the couch.

She landed on the cushions with a huff, neatly between Dawn and Brock who after a moment of hesitation, resumed their previous conversation about breeding.

"Candice! You're doing it wrong." Paul's voice caught her ear. She turned around to see Candice fiddling around with the laptop in Paul's lap.

"Come of it Paul, let her do what she wants." Ash said easily, watching Candice over Paul's shoulder.

"You should go look at his history Candice. See what Paul's been doing cooped up on this thing."

"Don't you dare Candice." Paul snapped, his hands grabbing her and averting her grip. Then as things went, it dissolved into a childlike brawl for the laptop. All with a laughing Ash goading them on.

* * *

**Well? Tell me how it went and if you guys want me to edit it. Tell me. And I will. Also give me any suggestions you have for the story, cause at the moment... I'm really floudering on what to write about. **

**Thanks**

**Pen of Silver. **


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